Read Star Trek: The Next Generation - 119 - Armageddon's Arrow for Free Online Page B

Our scans are able to partially penetrate the hull plating, but the readings are muddled. I’m having to modulate our sensors.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Judging by the size of those engine exhaust ports, whatever drives that thing is likely pretty impressive.”
    La Forge said, “Despite our limited scans, I’m still seeing what looks to be a rudimentary form of warp drive. If I had to guess, I’d say its top speed was about warp two or two point five, so somewhere between first and second generation, and probably not good for much beyond flights between planets in the same system.” He frowned, nodding toward the viewscreen. “Of course, that makes you wonder what it’s doing way out here.”
    “Drifting, mostly,” Šmrhová replied. “I’ve tried backtracking its course to determine a point of origin. I can’t make a conclusive determination, sir, but its trajectory suggests that it came from the star system we’re approaching.”
    Picard considered the possibility. “Sensor data collected by the survey drones that mapped this area indicated advanced life-forms.”
    Looking up from her station, Chen said, “I’ve read those reports, sir. They didn’t mention anything about warp capability. This may be a relatively new technological breakthrough for them.”
    “My thoughts exactly, Lieutenant.” Picard offered a small smile. “If that’s the case, then you may be busy quite soon.” Turning back to the screen, he said in a louder voice, “It looks as though the rest of us have a bit of a mystery to solve.”
    The captain, for one, welcomed the diversion that—for the moment, at least—appeared to be benign. Following a rendezvous at Starbase 24 in which the Enterprise had received a final consignment of supplies as well as its chief medical officer and his wife, Doctor Beverly Crusher, returning from her temporary assignment at Deep Space 9, the starship had set out for parts all but unknown. Weeks of travel from the heart of Federation space had yielded precious little about which to be excited. That much had been expected from the transit to “the Odyssean Pass,” which Picard believed was so named in a poetic whimsy by the Starfleet cartographer reviewing data from the first unmanned survey probes to chart the region. On two-dimensional star charts, the Pass was an area between two branches of Federation territory that skirted the far boundary of space claimed by the Romulan Empire, extending beyond its borders away from Federation, Klingon, and Romulan territory. That the Pass represented one of the few directions in which the Romulans were capable of expanding was not lost on anyone, particularly Picard, who more than once had considered the ramifications should the Federation run afoul of the Empire with respect to any future border disputes.
    “Is there a chance that ship belongs to any of our friends from these parts?” Chen asked. Looking over his shoulder at the young lieutenant, Picard noted her wry expression and discerned her meaning.
    “If you mean the Romulans,” said Šmrhová, “I doubt it. There’s nothing in that ship’s construction or metallurgy that’s even remotely similar to anything the Empire might have.”
    And yet, Picard decided, there was something about this vessel’s elongated, conical silhouette that somehow was familiar. “How long until we intercept it?”
    “Just under an hour at our present speed, sir,” replied Glinn Ravel Dygan, the young Cardassian officer manning the ops station to Chen’s left. Aboard the Enterprise thanks to an officer exchange program between Starfleet and the Cardassian military, the glinn had requested his assignment to be extended so that he could stay with the ship during its new mission to the Odyssean Pass.
    Dygan almost had not made the journey, owing to concerns and pressures over which he had no control. The fallout stemming from President Bacco’s murder and the revelation that a group of Cardassians